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Running Rosetta on the new MacBook Pro laptops
I just got my new MacBook Pro and was sitting here doing software installs, etc., and the thought hit me that I have no idea how Rosetta works. Is it resident in the Tiger OS or do I need to install something? When I’m done with my installs will these non-Universal apps just run or do I have to do something to make them run?
Thanks.
I hate to ask such a stupid question but I have had my head down in the trenches working on the new magazine and have had little time to check out much of anything other than how quickly one can get calluses on the fingertips if they type enough. ;o)
Best regards,
Ron “Feeling quite like a noob again” Lindeboom
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3 Replies
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Rosetta is OS X’s invisible man.
You will never see, hear, or smell it. There is never any proof that it’s actually there at all!
The ONLY way to tell if it’s working is to go to Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor and look at the processes that are running. There should be a column that specifies PowerPC or Universal Apps.
If you see PowerPC apps listed there, it’s working! If you don’t, it’s not.
Seriously, that’s all there is to it. This stuff makes the OS 9 “Classic” mode look like rocket science. I recently helped set up a switcher with a new Intel Mac and I didn’t even TELL him about Rosetta. There’s really no reason for him to know about it at all!
(You can also select Apps in the Application folder and hit Apple-i to see if it’s universal or not. I’ve started changing the label color on my non-universal apps to red just so I can get an idea of which ones still need to be upgraded once available.)
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Many universal apps (not all, but many) can be forced to open in Rosetta if you like.
For example, if you come across some plug in for Safari that you just HAVE to have but it only exists as a PowerPC version, it can’t run in the Inte-version of Safari. What you can do is click on Safari in the application folder, hit Apple-i and select “Open using Rosetta.” This will allow your PowerPC plugin to run with the PowerPC Safari, all through Rosetta.
I haven’t found a good reason to use this feature yet, but it’s cool to try it just to see the speed difference between the same app running natively vs. Rosetta.
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Thank you a lot for taking the time to educate me on Rosetta (and on BootCamp/Parallel), Jeff. I appreciate it very much.
With so much to do and so many things in crunch mode right now, I just haven’t had time to check this all out. It was actually funny when the machine got here and I was merrily loading things and suddenly I went, “What if I am doing all this wrong?!#@!?” That’s when I ran here and played the role of Today’s Dummy.
;o)
Thanks again,
Ron Lindeboom
(who is sweating from the heat coming off this DuoCore — now where’s my water?)
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